


Parent Teacher Meeting

by SassyLassy



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Humanstuck, Nonbinary Character, Other, single parent gamzee, twin cherubs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-24
Updated: 2015-07-24
Packaged: 2018-04-10 23:45:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4412609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SassyLassy/pseuds/SassyLassy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Caliborn gets in trouble at school, his dad is called from work to come collect him and talk with his teacher Mister Nitram</p>
            </blockquote>





	Parent Teacher Meeting

"This is so boring." Caliborn muttered as he sat, arms folded stiffly over his chest, in the hall.

"Well it's all your fault!" Calliope shot back. "If you hadn't gotten into that fight with Dirk, we wouldn't be sitting here!"

Caliborn scoffed, turning his head away and glared angrily at the window. He squinted his blue and green mixed eyes at the bright sun shining into the empty corridor, and instead chose to glare at the broken radiator sitting across from him. Wasn't his fault Dirk was full of himself, thinking he knew everything, and purposely fed him the wrong answer to the quiz the class took before break. 

Besides, Dirk had a punchable face with his perfect blond hair and baby face. It demanded a swift punch, and who better to give it than the mix-matched eyed, red head?

But the fight had escalated when Dirks' friends Jake, Roxy and Jane had gotten involved. Some of Caliborns' friends got in on the action and it had been a literal brawl of eight year olds and it had taken all of the teachers on hand to pull everyone apart and find the root of the problem and, surprise surprise, it was Caliborn Viper Makara.

Which meant an instant phone call to his dad, at work, and Caliborn sitting outside the teacher who'd been stuck with the task of talking to both him, and his dad. His homeroom teacher, Mister Nitram.

Think of the devil, and there he was, opening the door and looking down at his student. Mister Nitram was tall, and didn't give you the idea that he was a teacher of a bunch of grade schoolers. He had dark chestnut brown skin, thick black hair, and deep brown eyes; many of the mothers that came to the school tended to look at him for far too long. But he loved his work, he loved what he did, and he'd seen many boys like Caliborn come into his classrooms over the years.

"Well, Caliborn, are you thinking about what happened?" he asked.

"No." Caliborn answered immediately, huffing and lifting his shoulders. He even turned his head away, eyes shutting.

"Caliborn never thinks!" his twin sister spoke up brightly, her freckled face beaming as she smiled up at her teacher. Being twins, Caliborn and Calliope had been arranged to be in the same classes together. Breaking them up just didn't seem to be a very good idea for them, that despite their bickering they were incredibly close. "He really doesn't not, not even with homework."

Mister Nitram chortled a little before reaching down and patted the little girl on the shoulders. "Well let's hope he doesn't keep that attitude with homework, or thinking, for too long."

She giggled, and Caliborn only groaned louder.

Hands tightening against the wheel of the car, Gamzee drove with purpose. This wasn't good. Caliborn was a rowdy kid, he always had been, speaking with the loudest voice, being the first of the twins to even walk first, as well as talk. As if he was out here to make a point, that he had something to prove. But fighting? Hurting kids? It had never gotten that far before.

Was it their fault? Gamzee had been nothing but a good father to the twins ever since they were born. Even when their mother had run out on them over four years ago because the stress of motherhood was too much, leaving the two children crying for their mother for weeks, when Gamzee almost wanted to take off as well but instead they'd cried with them. Thankfully for the twins, and themselves, 'Dede' Makara and aunt Kurloz was a phone call away and had dropped everything in their lives to help.

Gamzee took time off work to focus on the twins. To make sure they knew that daddy loved them, would never leave them like mommy had, and that their family would remain strong in despite of the crack and hole left when their mommy had gone.

Now, Caliborn and Calliope were in grade school. Calliope was smart, so clever with drawing and coloring and numbers and reading. Caliborn was a slower learner than his sister, jealous of her clearly in his fathers eyes, but he tried. And now here Gamzee was parking their car in the parking lot of the school needing to talk to Caliborns' teacher about his behavior.

Taking a deep breath Gamzee momentarily checked themselves in the mirror of the car. Okay. Hair looked presentable but a bit wavy, pale skin, and clothing that of a storyboard artist. Casual to the nines. Baggy shirt, long jeans, scarf wrapped around their neck and various bangles and beads (all made by Calliope with her jewelry making classes with Kurloz) hanging off their wrists. Car door locked, sneakers hitting the street, Gamzee hurried up into the school.

"Daddy!" Calliope spotted her father coming down the hall, and she hurried down the clean floor towards them while Caliborn slowly sunk further into the plastic chair he was sitting at.

"There's my special little lady," Gamzee greeted as they got down to scoop the little girl into their arms, easily lifting her off the floor. "You keepin' your brother company while he waits for me?" they asked.

"Uh huh," Calliope nodded eagerly, turning in her dads arms to point at her brother. "He's right there!"

Gamzee looked at their son, sitting there, hunched and staring at the floor. Then they looked to the teacher standing besides him and Gamzee had to take a moment to just silently appreciate how good looking this teacher was. Calliope hadn't mentioned this in her long, detailed description of her classes. Then again she was far too young to be thinking about how pretty or handsome a teacher may be.

"Oh! Mist--"

"Call me Gamzee, please." Gamzee cut in, "No misters."

Mister Nitram blinked, but smiled. "Of course." he put his arms behind his back. "Did Aradia explain to you what happened, uh, over the phone?"

"Yes she did." they answered, looking down at Caliborn. "But I'd like to be hearing how this all went down from the little man himself."

Caliborn was focusing very hard on the floor.

"Caliborn." Gamzee slowly got down to one knee, setting Calliope down. "You wanna tell me what happened, before your nice teacher tells me?"

It looked as though Caliborn wasn't going to talk at all, and Gamzee reached to press their hand to the floor before moving to stand but suddenly the explosion happened. Caliborn talked rapidly about the class, about the quiz that Mister Nitram had put them through and how he didn't know the answers so he'd asked Dirk but Dirk had told him the wrong answer on PURPOSE so his would be wrong. That the boy was all smart and a show off and he smelled real bad and that he'd hit him and how he'd been attacked by Dirks friends. Gamzee listened, intently, while Calliope hung back, tightly holding onto the back of her dads shirt as her brother babbled and blabbed.

At the end, Caliborn was sitting there, shoulders shaking slightly before he suddenly moved and rushed to his dad and threw his arms around Gamzees shoulders. Of course Gamzee held him back, even slowly standing and holding Caliborn in their arms. "It's okay, it's okay..." he said gently, "It's gonna be okay little man," they whispered as they stroked the back of Caliborns head. They wouldn't tell him not to cry, that was cruel of a parent in their opinion. "Ain't nothin' wrong with not knowing stuff. That's what Mister Nitram's here to teach you," they explained, "And if y'all still not getting stuff then we'll all work together to make sure you understand proper. Yeah?"

All he got was a few rapid nods from the boy, as Calliope moved closer to her father, gently holding onto his leg as she looked up at her twin. Well, now she felt a little bad. Only a little.

"Yes," Mister Nitram spoke up with a smile as Gamzee looked to him. "We can all work together to help with this, so it won't have to happen like this again. Doesn't that sound good?"

"Very good." Gamzee agreed as they, now, took in the sight of the teacher. Naturally, they'd been far more concerned with the state of their son and how he was but now that the air was mostly clear, like a fog lifting, they could now look at the teacher. He was very handsome with nice dark brown skin and jet black hair, kind eyes, warm soft looking lips the kind that deserved kisses. Such thoughts were allowed, of course. They may be raising their children without the kids mother but that didn't mean they couldn't appreciate a hot stud when one came along.

Especially when one was their kids teacher.

"Thanks," they said to the teacher. "I know he ain't the easiest kid to manage, but he tries his best y'know?"

"That he does." Mister Nitram smiled warmly, looking to Gamzee now as he'd been watching Caliborn just to make sure he really was all right. Upset, yes, but not hurt in any long lasting way. He hoped. "But thank you for coming by so quick, I know it wouldn't have been easy with work."

"Oh you know where I work?" Gamzee asked, raising an eyebrow with a grin.

"I told 'im!" Calliope spoke up, "We had, had a 'what do your daddies do for work' day, 'n I told them all about what you do!"

"Well I hope you made me sound amazing."

"Mmhmm!" she grinned, nodding her head. "I did!" why wouldn't she? Her daddy drew for a living and the shows they worked on were so good and so funny she always talked excitedly about them at school. About what character she liked, the story, what was going on and the music and more or less everything. She loved telling stories, and the ones about her dad were always the best in her opinion. Their job compared to the boring office, or blue collar, jobs of her friends dads made theirs pale in comparison.

"Good girl. Now c'mon let's get our fine selves home so we can get ourselves some pizza." 

"Pizza!" Caliborn shouted, still in his fathers arms and a huge grin now on his face. "Yeah, pizza!"

Gamzee laughed and slowly lowered Caliborn back onto the floor. "Go grab your stuff from your lockers, both of ya, I'll be right behind." he urged.

The two adults watched the twins hurry away, chasing one another to the lockers down at the end of the hall way. Sighing, Gamzee turned to gaze at the teacher again. Smiling, they settled their hands on their hips. "Sorry y'all had to hang back and keep your family waiting." Gamzee apologized.

"Oh. I don't have a family, I mean. I do but my parents are hah, aren't in the city." Mister Nitram replied, "And really I'd take all the time after school I can to make sure everyone's doing alright."

"Oh what the Hell brother, no girlfriend? Boyfriend?" they asked curiously.

"Boyfriend? Oh, hah aahh.. um.. No." the teacher shook his head. "Not for a few years. Uh. Not sure why I just told you that."

"I dunno," Gamzee shrugged before reaching into their pocket and pulled out a round piece of cardboard and handed it to Tavros. "If y'all ever wanna hang out when you ain't worrying yourself over all these kids, gimmie a ring, yeah?"

He blinked in mild surprise at that, and took the round card that read Gamzees name and details. Email, phone number, what they did for a job and it was basically a business card but it was round instead of square.

"..are you asking me out on a date?" Tavros, not Mister Nitram, asked as his face begun to turn a deeper shade of red.

"Mmm!" Gamzee replied honestly, nodding, before turning away. "Y'all work too hard, and you won't be their teacher forever. I'd like to be getting to know you on a far more personal basis if y'all get my meaning."

Oh he got it. He understood it. And Tavros could only watch as the mysterious Makara walked over to where their children was waiting. Both were talking excitedly at them now, one taking a hand each as they partly dragged Gamzee out of sight. 

"...well then." Tavros looked down at the business card, turning it over in his hand slowly. 

"Are you going to?" Aradia's sudden appearance, and her voice, had Tavros almost leap out of his skin. He spun, seeing the secretary standing there, her eyebrows almost vanishing up into her hair.

"Jesus Aradia how long you been standing there??" Tavros asked, flustered, as he almost dropped the card.

"Long enough to see a parent flirt with the teacher. Least he waited till his kids were out of sight! Remember that one woman who was all but grinding on you that one parent/teacher conference?" she asked, amusement clearly plastered on her rosy cheeked face. She had deep red hair that hung down around her shoulders, her shape being that what some men would consider either curvy, or just chubby. Aradia herself never bought into such labels and was perfectly happy with herself. Which was a little contagious.

"I remember." Tavros said, gravely.

"So I repeat, are you going to?" she asked, curiously.

"I don't. I uh... m-maybe? They seem. Really nice and I know they care a lot about their kids--"

"Plus they're kinda hot. In a... androgynous kinda way." Aradia commented. "I mean did you check out their butt? God damn."

"Aradia please."

"Did you?" she asked, relentlessly.

"Okay fine maybe I looked I mean. Hnnnn." he breathed, deeply, turning to look at the woman. "This is hardly the time or place to discuss this."

"Um. Sure it is, the schools empty, there's no kids around, and it's not like anyone else is around right now besides the cleaner and he's all the way in the other hall right now." Aradia pointed out with a smirk, hands on her hips. "It's the best time."

"I am going back to my classroom. You," he said as he walked past her, "Can do what you want."

"Tavros Nitram you better take that guy up on their offer or I'm going to mysteriously forget to tell you any of the messages you don't get!" Aradia called after his retreating back. "You need a date! You need to get laid!"

"Wow could you maybe shout that a little louder next time?" Tavros hissed as he was vanishing around the corner to head to his classroom.

"I could!" she pointed out, loudly, her voice bouncing off of the walls.

And she would, too. He knew she would.

A part of him wanted to throw the business card out because, flattering as it was, Gamzee was the parent of two of his students. Would the school board like this? Would the kids be okay with that? Would they even work together? He honestly had no idea and just a few minutes with this Gamzee Makara was enough to have the other feel confident enough to come onto him.

And in such a casual way, too. Very casual and very confident in doing so. 

How long had it been since he had a date, any way? A few years. Not that he'd cared, that much, at least until now. 

Grumbling, Tavros found his bag behind his teachers desk and picked it up. He picked up some drawings left behind by some of his students to him, most of them drawings of their houses, pets, themselves, some even of him. He loved these. They meant a lot to him, and majority of them would end up on his fridge at home or in an album. Putting those too into his bag, Tavros gathered up the rest of his things and made his way to the main entrance of the school, passing by the front desk.

"Call him!" Aradia called from behind the front desk, closing things up as she did.

"Goodnight Aradia!" Tavros called.

Of course he contemplated it. Going on a date again, even if it didn't end up going anywhere, might be nice. But how do you explain to your students that you went on a date with their father? If other students found out, and told their parents... and the parents got upset that their kids were being taught by a gay man? It was an fear, a decent one, and he groaned as he leaned forward in his car and pressed his forehead against the wheel.

Why did the first person to show any interest in him in years have to be a parent to some of his students?

All his luck.


End file.
